April 15, 2024: A narrower possible location for Planet Nine, flavors of curiosity and marine mammal insights in a can of salmon. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | A team of astronomers searching for a mysterious planetary body dubbed Planet Nine have narrowed down its possible location—if it exists at all. The researchers significantly whittled away at where it might be in the sky, eliminating 78 percent of its possible hiding places, reports astronomer Phil Plait. Combing through a star survey that covers three quarters of the entire sky visible from a telescope atop Haleakalā on Maui, the team looked for a moving object that matched Planet Nine's predicted behavior. They initially found 1.3 billion candidate objects, and then narrowed the number down to 244 million. But no planet unveiled itself in those data, nor in two other star surveys.
Why this is intriguing: In 2000, Plait and other astronomers published research showing that an exoplanet might exist around the star HD 163296 at a distance more than 10 times Neptune's distance from the sun and much farther out than models at the time suggested. Later, several planets were found orbiting that star at great distances. Plus, the orbits of numerous trans-Neptunian objects are roughly aligned, suggesting that non-random forces are afoot.
What the experts say: At this point, does Plait think Planet Nine exists? "As a scientist I can't say one way or another. But as a human being I'll readily admit I want it to be out there. Another planet in the solar system! … It would advance our understanding of how the solar system formed and evolved over the eons." | | | Illustration by Tobias Roetsch/Future Publishing via Getty Images | | | Parasites in canned salmon might not sound savory, but they point to good news on rebounding populations of marine mammals, suggests a new study covered by freelance science journalist Rachel Nuwer. Killer whales, seals and belugas prey on salmon, which are an intermediate host for various nematodes. So increased worm infection in salmon is tied to more chow for salmon and their predators. Researchers dissected a total of 178 cans of chum, coho, pink and sockeye salmon. The fish were processed between 1979 and 2019, providing a proxy timeline for salmon and marine mammal health and population sizes. The number of nematodes per gram of tissue significantly increased over time in chum and pink salmon. The uptick in worms signals a conservation success story for marine mammals.
The data: A trade organization offered stacks of dusty boxes of expired canned salmon to the researchers. "We were like, 'Worms could be in there!' recalls parasite ecologist and study co-author Chelsea Wood. "That's how we started on this study: [the Seafood Products Association] asking us if we wanted this trash from their basement and us saying, 'Absolutely, yes.'"
How they did it: The researchers carefully picked through the salmon muscle tissue with forceps. After salmon eat fish that host worms, the parasites burrow into the salmon's muscle, making a little pocket. When the team opened one of the pockets, the worms tended to "spring out," says Wood. "They were very easily visible." | | |
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